1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to hair extension and an adornment, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for attaching supplemental hair to human hair to produce longer hair length or greater hair volume.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Frequently, a person may wish to supplement their own natural hair with supplemental hair in order to lengthen or increase the volume of hair in order to change their appearance or try on a new fashionable hair style. Thus, a person with short hair, or a person with sparse hair, may have a hair style that requires longer hair, or greater hair volume. The supplemental is hair may be made of natural human hair or synthetic fibers made to look like natural human hair.
In the prior art, supplemental hair strands may be attached or bonded to natural hair by several methods, such as tying, weaving, or gluing the supplemental hair to the person""s natural hair.
An example of attaching supplemental hair by weaving or braiding is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,982,748 issued to Trimarchi. Trimarchi discloses intertwining or braiding of natural and synthetic hair followed by wrapping the braided portion of natural and synthetic hair with a portion of synthetic hair, which is then coated with a heat-hardenable sealer. Heat is applied to the wrapped braid using a pair of tipped members, which are adapted for mounting on the arms of a conventional heated curling iron. The tipped members include pointed portions and opposing flat surfaces for applying heat.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,934,387 issued to Magna discloses a method for lengthening hair by gluing supplemental hair to natural hair with thermoplastic adhesives dispensed from a glue gun. One problem with the Magna invention is that bundles of supplemental hair are not glued prior to gluing the supplemental hair bundled to the natural hair, which makes the Magna process difficult because a glue gun, the supplemental hair bundle, and the natural hair must all be manipulated simultaneously in a manner that may prove difficult for the operator.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,107,867 issued to Barrington shows supplemental hair plugs bonded by a thermostable adhesive, and coated with a thermosetting adhesive. The plug of supplemental hair is inserted into a small segment of heat shrinkable tubing with natural hair, and heat is applied to the heat shrinkable tubing so that the thermosetting adhesive liquefies and joins the plug of supplemental hair and natural hair while being compressed and sealed by the heat shrinkable tubing. The process shown in Barrington has the disadvantage of being tedious, awkward, and time consuming because hair plugs are bonded with two different materials and segments of heat shrinkable tubing are awkwardly threaded along the length of a bundle of a person""s natural hair.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,072,745 issued to Cheh shows a bundle of supplemental hair joined together by hot melt adhesive. The supplemental hair bundle is bonded to a person""s growing hair using an application tool to melt and dispense the adhesive. Disadvantages of Cheh include the inaccuracy in quantity of glue dispensed and the difficulty in evenly dispersing the glue that is initially deposited on only a few of the strands to be bonded.
The hair extension and adornment techniques known in the prior art have the problem of requiring extraordinary dexterity in the person applying the supplemental hair because supplemental hair bundles and sections of natural hair are difficult to bond using heat sources that do not assist in holding and mixing the combination of natural hair, supplemental hair, and thermoplastic adhesive.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved method and system for applying supplemental hair to natural human hair that provides tools and techniques that make it easier for the person applying the supplemental hair.
The invention is directed to a method and apparatus for attaching supplemental hair to natural human hair. The method begins with selecting a plurality of strands of human hair growing from a scalp. A supplemental hair bundle, which includes a plurality of supplemental hair strands previously glued to one another at a glued portion by thermoplastic glue, is fused using a heating element of an applicator. The glued portion of the supplemental hair bundle is then contacted to the selected plurality of strands of human hair. The heating element may be a heated jaw having a heating channel shaped to receive and heat the glued portion of the bundle. A kneading jaw having a kneading ridge in opposing relationship to the heating channel of the heating jaw may be used to clamp the human hair and the supplemental hair bundle, and to supply a manipulating force to mix the glue into the strands of human hair. Bundles are made by placing supplemental hair strands in a film of melted or fused glue coating the outer surface of a rotating cylinder that is partially submerged in a reservoir of fused glue.